Monday, August 14, 2017

Clifford Berryman’s famous 1902 cartoon of Roosevelt refusing to kill a black bear. (The Washington Post)

It seems that Theodore Roosevelt was asked to hunt bear in 1902 with the governor of Louisiana. In those days, the bears weren't protected like they are now. It's my understanding that this poor bear was chased down until at last it snatched one of the president's hunting dogs. A companion of TR raised his rifle and smacked the black bear on the head. He tied the bear to a tree and blew his bugle, summoning the president over. President Roosevelt was asked to deliver the fatal shot.Cartoonist Clifford Berryman, drawing for this newspaper, documented what happened next: Roosevelt arrived, took one look at the feeble beast with its big, frightened eyes. And he walked away. It became part of Roosevelt’s larger than life persona, evidence of his benevolence, his principles, his kinship with nature. And, when a New York shop owner decided to name his signature stuffed bear after the animal-loving president, it fueled the production of a million toys and a new kind of relationship to wildlife.

This was Theodore Roosevelt's
first cabin in the Dakota Territory.
It was used by Roosevelt from 1883-1884, before he became President. After his wife
and mother
died in 1884, only hours apart, Roosevelt became depressed. He then left the
cabin and went further north up the Little Missouri
River, where he constructed his new Elkhorn Ranch cabin, where
he spent most of his time.

In 1901, at the dawn of the 20th
century, Theodore Roosevelt became the nation's 26th President and ultimately
one of its greatest conservationists. He later said, "I would not have
been President had it not been for my experience in North Dakota."

It was here in the North Dakota
badlands in 1883 that Theodore Roosevelt first arrived to hunt a buffalo.
Before he left, he had acquired primary interests in the Maltese Cross Ranch
(also called the Chimney Butte Ranch). Roosevelt thrived on the vigorous
outdoor lifestyle, and, at the Maltese Cross, actively participated in the life
of a working cowboy.

The Maltese Cross Ranch cabin was
originally located about seven miles south of Medora in the wooded bottom-lands
of the Little Missouri River. At Roosevelt's request, ranch managers Sylvane
Ferris and Bill Merrifield built a 11⁄2-story cabin complete with a shingled roof and root
cellar. Constructed of durable ponderosa pine logs, the cabin was considered
somewhat of a "mansion" in its day, with wooden floors and three
separate rooms (kitchen, living room and Roosevelt's bedroom). The steeply
pitched roof, an oddity on the northern plains, created an upstairs sleeping
loft for the ranch hands.

Several items present in the
cabin today did belong to Theodore Roosevelt, but the majority of the
furnishings are period pieces representing a typical cabin of the time (see Furnishing
Plan). The white hutch in the main room is original to the cabin and was used
as a bookcase and writing desk. The classically styled desk is from the Elkhorn
Ranch cabin. Roosevelt spent many hours at his desk, recording his experiences
and memoirs of badlands life.

The common rocking chair is
believed to have been Roosevelt's, or may have come from an upstairs room in
the Ferris Store where Roosevelt stayed on occasion. Rocking chairs were his
favorite piece of furniture; all of his homes had rocking chairs, and Roosevelt
once wrote, "What true American does not enjoy a rocking-chair?"

Roosevelt's traveling trunk sits
in the bedroom and is inscribed with his initials. The large leather trunk
traveled back and forth with him on the train from his home in New York City to the stop
in Medora and would have held clothing and personal items.

Roosevelt actively ranched in the
badlands only until early 1887, but maintained ranching interests in the area
until 1898. Later, as president, he developed a conservation program that
deeply reflected his many experiences in the West. It was through these
experiences that he became keenly aware of the need to conserve and protect
natural resources.

Roosevelt's second ranch, the
Elkhorn, was built in 1884 and was located about 35 miles north of Medora on
the Little Missouri
River. After its construction, Roosevelt considered the Elkhorn his
"home ranch" and spent most of his time there whenever he was in
residence in the Dakotas.

Today

The Maltese Cross Cabin was later
abandoned for a time, but is now preserved and maintained properly by the National Park
Service. Today, it is located within Theodore Roosevelt National
Park, and designated as a historic landmark. Some personal effects of Theodore
Roosevelt remain on display in the cabin. Tours of the cabin are held from mid
June-Labor Day. The rest of the year, the cabin is self-guided.

The original location of this
cabin was several miles away. Because of its smaller size the cabin was able to
be moved around the state on a public tour, but was relocated to the current
site after restoration. Nothing remains of his subsequent cabin, located in a
much more remote area at the Elkhorn Ranch, except some cornerstones,
foundation blocks, and a well which is covered for safety. "I do not
believe there ever was any life more attractive to a vigorous young fellow than
life on a cattle ranch in those days. It was a fine, healthy life, too; it
taught a man self-reliance, hardihood, and the value of instant decision...I
enjoyed the life to the full."

Tuesday, April 18, 2017

Edith
Kermit Carow Roosevelt

Edith Kermit Carow Roosevelt was the second wife and First
Lady of her childhood companion and the 26th President, Theodore Roosevelt
(1901-1909).

Edith Kermit Carow knew Theodore Roosevelt
from infancy; as a toddler she became a playmate of his younger sister Corinne.
Born in Connecticut in 1861, daughter of Charles and Gertrude Tyler Carow, she
grew up in an old New York brownstone on Union Square -- an environment of
comfort and tradition. Throughout childhood she and "Teedie" were in
and out of each other's houses.

Attending Miss Comstock's school, she
acquired the proper finishing touch for a young lady of that era. A quiet girl
who loved books, she was often Theodore's companion for summer outings at
Oyster Bay, Long Island; but this ended when he entered Harvard. Although she
attended his wedding to Alice Hathaway Lee in 1880, their lives ran separately
until 1885, when he was a young widower with an infant daughter, Alice.

Putting tragedy behind him, he and Edith
were married in London in December 1886. They settled down in a house on
Sagamore Hill, at Oyster Bay, headquarters for a family that added five
children in ten years: Theodore, Kermit, Ethel, Archibald, and Quentin.
Throughout Roosevelt's intensely active career, family life remained close and
entirely delightful. A small son remarked one day, "When Mother was a
little girl, she must have been a boy!"

Public tragedy brought them into the White
House, eleven days after President McKinley succumbed to an assassin's bullet.
Assuming her new duties with characteristic dignity, Mrs. Roosevelt meant to
guard the privacy of a family that attracted everyone's interest, and she tried
to keep reporters outside her domain. The public, in consequence, heard little
of the vigor of her character, her sound judgment, her efficient household
management.

But in this administration the White House
was unmistakably the social center of the land. Beyond the formal occasions,
smaller parties brought together distinguished men and women from varied walks
of life. Two family events were highlights: the wedding of "Princess
Alice" to Nicholas Longworth, and Ethel's debut. A perceptive aide
described the First Lady as "always the gentle, high-bred hostess; smiling
often at what went on about her, yet never critical of the ignorant and
tolerant always of the little insincerities of political life."

T.R. once wrote to Ted Jr. that "if
Mother had been a mere unhealthy Patient Griselda I might have grown set in
selfish and inconsiderate ways." She continued, with keen humor and
unfailing dignity, to balance her husband's exuberance after they retired in
1909.

After his death in 1919, she traveled abroad
but always returned to Sagamore Hill as her home. Alone much of the time, she
never appeared lonely, being still an avid reader -- "not only cultured
but scholarly," as T.R. had said. She kept till the end her interest in
the Needlework Guild, a charity which provided garments for the poor, and in
the work of Christ Church at Oyster Bay. She died on September 30, 1948, at the
age of 87.

During her time as FL, she was instrumental in changing the private residence. Security was lax and people would wander into the private residence so she removed the presidential staff from the second floor. She was also involved with the 1902 renovation and addition of the West Wing which gave it the classical look, and on the ground floor, the gallery of the First Ladies collection.

The biographies of the First Ladies on WhiteHouse.gov are from
“The First Ladies of the United States of America,” by Allida Black. Copyright
2009 by the White House Historical Association.